We hope that your Thanksgiving was blessed and happy, full of food, friends and family and maybe a bit too much dessert. We also hope that if you were brave enough to attempt Black Friday that you were unhurt and able to get what you were after, and we applaud your bravery in pursuit of whatever it was. 🙂

Just think, soon it will be Christmas! Where has this year gone? I really don’t know. At first I thought it was me getting older, but even younger people are scratching their heads and going ‘wasn’t it just August?’

I blame the election for distracting us, and the heat of the early fall as well for throwing us off balance. Add to that the late time change and suddenly it’s late fall.

Speaking of the election, it seems about half the public has lost their minds over the election. I guess accepting the election only works for you if you actually won it. Otherwise, ‘protest, protest, protest’. Oh and of course, destroy other people’s property by vandalism or fire.

I hope you stay safe and avoid conflict in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the inauguration. We’ll soon see a new Prez and see what happens then. In the meantime, I must write, write, write, and I am, am, am!

Parno’s Gambit is at least one third finished at this point and moving quickly. It is entirely possible that it will be available for Christmas, assuming I can finish it in time for the editor to get it proofed.

Check out the other writers who work for Creative Texts at their website, including Jerry Young, a PAW writer from way back. Remember, send compliments to me and complaints to them! 😀

I do sincerely wish all of you a safe and happy rest of your holiday weekend. Be safe and be blessed.

NCR

EDITED to ADD: Learned of the death of Ron Glass late yesterday. I was saddened to think of it and hear it. While I remember him on Barney Miller, he will forever be to me Shepherd Book, The Preacher with a Past whose bible is somewhat fuzzy on kneecaps.

Today is sort of bittersweet for me in a way. A few hours ago I posted the last chapter of the Shade tales that will ever be written. Eight years and over a half million words since I first sat down a began writing. A lot has happened since then.

And today saw the end of it. So many wonderful people have encouraged me and cheered me on over those years and all those words. It has been a truly wonderful experience for me, and I hope enjoyable for them.

Now I’m writing the story of the character I based Shade on all those years ago, a story that I had come up with but had no where to express it. Remember that I’m less of a writer and more of a story teller. Now I’ve found an outlet for Stormcrow, the original Shade if you will. I suppose then it’s only fitting that Shade come to an end. And truthfully, I don’t have the time to do it justice anymore.

But just as truthfully, I’ll miss it. I’ll miss writing for so many good people, and coming up with unique ways to leave people hanging with cliffies, as the saying goes. But doesn’t everyone love a little suspense? No?

If you are a fan of my fanfiction writing, specifically my “Shade” verse in Firefly fanfiction on fanfiction.net, then you may be happy to see this.

See, Shade was based on an original character idea that I had. I adapted it to Firefly fanfiction because I never thought I’d be a published author and heck it would be fun, right? Writing fanfiction started, for me, as an escape from hours of sitting in hospitals or at home while caring for a terminally ill parent many years ago.

After I started actually writing books for real, I decided that the original ‘Shade’ deserved at least a chance to be read, so the first of what I hope will be several novels is almost ready for publication.

STORMCROW is the original character that Shade is based on. The only real similarity between the two universes is the fact that both are ‘set’ for the most part on cargo ships. Otherwise Stormcrow shares very few points of any kind with Firefly. Each character in the story has their own baggage and their own issues, to be sure.

The story is a bit dark, and be warned it’s not a ‘space opera’ with fleets and battles in space, but rather more of a sci-fi action adventure. Stormcrow will be much more. . .’shade’ like, than Shade, if you catch my meaning.

Anyway, Stormcrow is almost ready to go to the publishers, so this is a friendly heads up to all of you who enjoyed Shade over the years.

Release information will be posted here and on my FB and Twitter page when I receive it.

Whew! Been hot for days, and there ain’t no sign it’s letting up anytime soon.

With that in mind, I’m spending a lot of time at the computer. Also been watching Warehouse 13 on DVD. Already watched season 1, and got the first disk of season 2 today from Netflix, along with the first disk of season 1 for Sanctuary.

Haven’t seen Sanctuary, so I can’t say yet is it any good. Warehouse 13, though, has been really great so far. If you haven’t seen it, give it a try. It’s a great sci-fi show IMO.

Put up another Firefly fanfic today called Time. I haven’t posted this one at FanFiction.net yet, and may not. I think I want some stories that are only available here. Nothing against FF.net, mind you. It’s a good place to write. Just wanting to expand my horizons, that’s all.

Still watching the great ‘budget deficit/default/budget cut/’my way or the highway’ debate. I’ve never seen more grown-ups acting like a buncha brats in my life. It’s pathetic, the people we send to Washington to run this country. If we weren’t the laughing stock of the world before this week, we have to be now.

We do have to cut our spending, though. We can’t keep borrowing 42 cents of every dollar we spend. It has to stop somewhere, and the sooner the better. At the same time, though, we can’t just cut everything.

Surely there’s at least one teaspoon of common sense somewhere in Washington.

I started a new page today for Firefly fan fiction. I made a note about older work, and a link to where it can be found if you’re interested. I’ve been writing it a while, and I have to admit I really do enjoy it sometimes.

I’m a Firefly fan. I admit it. If there’s any nerd in me at all, it’s Sci-Fi. I love writing Firefly fiction, and have written a goodly bunch of it. It’a available on FanFiction.net. I won’t bother reposting it here, since the blog isn’t really about that.

The reason I bring this up, is because I just saw an article about Joss Whedon, who invented Firefly, turning down the chance to do a ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ re-boot. New actors, et.al. This has always been a big thing with FF fans, bringing back the show.

Trouble is, it ain’t happening. Nathan Fillion is in his third season of Castle, and would be, well, stupid, to ditch that and go back anywhere near Fox. Adam Baldwin is on Chuck. Morrena Baccarin is on V. All this means that there would need to be all new characters.

Which means it wouldn’t really be FF anymore.

There have been numerous TV spots the last few days highlighting a re-make of ‘True Grit’, which I called downright unAmerican. I mean, the nerve! Remaking a JOHN WAYNE movie? It’s. . .it’s. . .well, maybe it isn’t blasphemous, but it’s darn close, lol.

Having said that, I am impressed with the cast. We’ll see if it measures up.

In the meantime, I have to wonder, do any of you have movies/shows you’d like to see come back or be entirely remade with new casts? Or any that you think it would be just, well, wrong, to do so?

Full Disclosure?

I've seen a lot of people who review books and what not posting information about the fact that they receive books from people for free in order to review them. Apparently that's in compliance with some sort of law, or legal action.
I have occasionally posted reviews here on this blog, as anyone who reads it knows. I'm not a professional reviewer, or even really an amateur. I just like to read, and then share what I've read. That's all.
Every book I've ever posted a review for on this blog, I bought. Period. No one paid me or anything else. I just wanted to share my thoughts.
So with no idea whether I needed to state this or not, here ya go.
NC

I am a freelance Photographer born and raised in the Southeast. I have uprooted my life in Macon Georgia for a new life as an unlikely cowgirl in love with a handsome cowboy in Wyoming. I hope you enjoy my photo journal on life, love, and the spirit of Wyoming.